Category: Off the Wall

The Amazing Reverb Raccoon 2020 Christmas Compilation!
I’ve been here 18 years and have suffered through some weird thematic Christmases. A Honolulu Christmas, a Pulp Fiction Christmas, a Muslim Christmas, Moroccan Christmas, Mo Rocca Christmas. I don’t want it. Christmas is Christmas is Christmas is Christmas... Just...

Tyrone from Mississippi
There are two types of men in this world: those who wear a shirt pretty much all the time, and those who hardly ever wear a shirt. Tyrone lived within the latter category. Tyrone was from Mississippi and he was the Genuine Article. He had a flattop, close on the...

Presenting the First Annual Reverb Raccoon T-Shirt Awards
I discovered Daniel Johnston in 2008 when I saw The Devil and Daniel Johnston. I loved his songs, and immediately ordered the iconic Hi, How Are You t-shirt from Daniel's website. I wore it the following year when I saw Daniel Johnston perform at the Austin City...

Six Songs for a Better Friday
Without government intervention, 90 percent of independent clubs don’t believe they can survive another six months of coronavirus shutdown. It could cause a near extinction of small music venues, said Jim DeRogatis, music critic and co-host of the nationally...

A Potful of Pop to Purchase on Friday
My lockdown hardship story... I needed a new gas can for my lawnmower fuel. We still call the containers cans even though they've been made from plastic for as long as I've been walking behind a mower in grass-stained canvas shoes. In normal times I would drive over...

Under the Covers with Bob Dylan
There exist people whose lives were transformed the first time they heard Bob Dylan. Full disclosure: I am not one of those people. I eased into Bob Dylan -- adding a track here, an album there -- through a process of aggregation that's been ongoing for (cough cough)...

Five Songs to Brighten Your Friday Lockdown
Jukes, held with his head in chancery, had to listen to what seemed horrible suggestions.'Don't want... you get lost... so long... ship isn't... Rout... Good man... Ship... may... through this... all right yet.'All at once Jukes understood he would have to go. 'Do you...

Five Songs to Buy on Friday
Nothing makes you appreciate a functioning government like a global pandemic. -- Andrew Yang Andrew Yang has been described as The Happy Warrior, an appellation previously applied to Lord Nelson and presidential candidates Al Smith and Hubert Humphrey. But Andrew's...

#BetterThanCanada: Our Plan for Crowdfunded Universal Healthcare
And so, my fellow Americans: ask not what your country can do for you -- ask what you can do for your country. -- John F. Kennedy JFK's most famous line, spoken at his presidential inauguration in 1961, is often bandied about as an admonition to serve your government...

My Dad – and His Typewriter – Fought in the War on Poverty
And this administration today here and now declares unconditional war on poverty in America... The richest nation on earth can afford to win it. We cannot afford to lose it. -- Lyndon Johnson, 1964 This is the richest country on Earth and we have 40 million in...